Iran's Communications Minister and Culture Ministry are targeted, among others.

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US government officials have been calling out Iran on its harsh treatment of bloggers and journalists for some time now. Now the US State Department is trying to put some teeth into those condemnations.

The department announced sanctions against four Iranian individuals, along with five Iranian "entities"—government agencies and private companies. The sanctioned organizations have all limited access to media, by jamming satellite broadcasts and "restricting Internet connectivity." They've also censored and closed newspapers, detained and even tortured journalists according to the State Department.

The sanctioned agencies include the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, the country's Press Supervisory Board, and the Center to Investigate Organized Crime, which helps "identify Internet users who published material insulting government officials," the AFP reports. Communications Minister Reza Taghipour has been personally cited.

Two Iranian software companies are being sanctioned as well: AmnAfzar Gostar-e Sharif, and PeykAsa, along with their founder Rasool Jalili. The companies monitor Iranian Web traffic and block access to Facebook, eBay, and YouTube.

All the sanctioned people and entities will have any US assets frozen.

The US wants to stop the "Iranian government from creating an 'electronic curtain' to cut Iranian citizens off from the rest of the world," said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.

The AFP report on today's sanctions also describes a recent act of somewhat ham-handed censorship by Iranian officials, who accidentally blocked Gmail when they were trying to censor only YouTube.

"Unfortunately, we do not yet have enough technical knowhow to differentiate between these two services," said Mohammad Reza Miri, an official charged with filtering the Internet in Iran. "We wanted to block YouTube and Gmail was also blocked, which was involuntary. We absolutely do not want YouTube to be accessible."

Obviously the US government is not as bad as a lot of other governments in this regard but with cases like Megaupload the US government isn't exactly saintly itself.

I... yeah. It's not for the same reasons, and it's likely different departments doing these different things who wouldn't see eye to eye if they spoke to each other. Regardless, with our close brush with SOPA/PIPA and the like, it feels like we've at least got a foundation with a few glass walls up and a nice stack of rocks.

Just bomb them already jeeze. All this sanctions bs is obviously not working and Bibi won't get off your back Obama!

Really? Just bomb them? I hope that was a joke, because if not that's a disturbing way of thinking. "They aren't listening to our demands! BOMB THEM!"

Granted, that is a backwards-ass country that no amount of money could make me visit, but still. Violence isn't the answer to everything, especially not bombing which would kill innocents as well as the intended target.

(Maybe) This is a dumb question, but what exactly is a sanction? I have been hearing in the news for years and the only thing I gathered was that for companies is sort of like an embargo on the goods and services they provide. Can a country just do it or must it be authorize by some international organization?

Just bomb them already jeeze. All this sanctions bs is obviously not working and Bibi won't get off your back Obama!

Really? Just bomb them? I hope that was a joke, because if not that's a disturbing way of thinking. "They aren't listening to our demands! BOMB THEM!"

Granted, that is a backwards-ass country that no amount of money could make me visit, but still. Violence isn't the answer to everything, especially not bombing which would kill innocents as well as the intended target.

Wow. Not only did you miss the obvious irony. You go on to promote bigotry. Go you!

People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. The US hasn't done a lot for internet freedom itself, lately.

I'm going to single you out among the other anti-U.S. hipstercats here. Pardon me.

The U.S. has done a helluva lot for Internet freedom. For all the griping about music and video piracy, Youtube is still online. Go youtube "Star wars a new hope part 1" and look at how many pirate links come up.

Its good that these sanctions are very specific on their target but in general are sanctions(especially those involving medical supplies and food) ever really all that useful for non democratic regimes like Iran?

Probably, the only people who will suffer are the poor and the rural. And if sanctions are so bad, that those in power are also suffering then there is certainly a major humanitarian disaster with the poor(like preventable child deaths etc).

Its good that these sanctions are very specific on their target but in general are sanctions(especially those involving medical supplies and food) ever really all that useful for non democratic regimes like Iran?

Probably, the only people who will suffer are the poor and the rural. And if sanctions are so bad, that those in power are also suffering then there is certainly a major humanitarian disaster with the poor(like preventable child deaths etc).

That is the biggest drawback of sanctions. They typically crush the poor and hurt the bottom line of the wealthy just enough to get the citizens to apply pressure on the people in charge. It is a sort of bottom up approach. They are typically much more effective when dealing with democratic nations, but they do have an effect on other types of government. However there are exceptions because it is counting on the leaders to care at least a little about the welfare of its population. North korea is the perfect example, the U.S. has always been imposing and threatening sanctions, but it eventually leads to them sending more aid and nothing changing because they really didn't seem to care if their people starved to death. However it still is a better alternative or at least an option to try before war. (IMO) There is always collateral damage when nations disagree.

Oh come ON! This is just like high school bully, picking on a smaller guy, just because he can. Try China for size! They have internet censorship for close to a decade now.Try UK! They are blocking a few sites as well. And don't forget the good old USA for striping sites from search results, so that you can bury the sites you don't like.

Please, this is plain attack on the smaller guy, who didn't rollover when you asked. Cowardly and a very bad foreign policy. Hope America is not going to open another war just because someone won the election.

At first I was going to question the U.S.'s double standard we have with China, but for what its worth, the Chinese don't have leaders who listen to an invisible man. "Allah commanded us to..." and insert any horrific situation.

actually sanctions against Iran have been particularly effective even on the elites, notice that last time the Iranian president came to the UN he brought a huge posse, and all went out and bought things like shampoo. The fact that it is also screwing with the economy in such a way as to put the Iranian currency into freefall is only another demonstration of its effectiveness. But yes, the poor and the middle class will get badly mangled in this process, that is because the rich and the powerful can do things to reduce the effects on them first, and can also ensure they are the last affected by diminishing resources. The thing is, Iran has always had a non centralized economy, which means it relies on businesses (large, medium and small) to provide for its needs. While the petro dollars were a huge benefit to this economy it was pretty broad based in other products and services. now both the petroleum garnered hard currency and the locally produced wealth are either absent or in a downward spiral. In the case of Iran, unlike N.Korea, this should put a lot of pressure on the authorities. But more importantly it is in fact slowing down the ability of the regime to R&D nukes. combined with the targeted sabotage that the US government is obviously doing, and I think the pressures are mounting on Iran, now it all depends on how willing we are to keep the sanctions, how solid is our alliance with the neighbors of Iran (so as to keep those sanctions effective).damn... I made this much longer than I intended and yet not long enough to fully spell out all the assertions

War with Iran, here we come ... *rolls eyes* You know it's coming. $25T national deficit and war with Iran...that'll be Obama's second term legacy.

The sad thing is, we're being used as the global bankers' sword to get other countries in line. Not to invoke Godwin's Law, but Hitler tried to expand out Germany for the sake of nationalism. We, on the other hand, are just a tool of global business & banking, being used as an attack dog to go after any country that the bankers don't think is playing nice.

Follow the money. Nothing is about nationalism anymore. It's all about consumerism.

Iran blocks portions of internet based on a religious belief of almost 100% of the population. Sure in the modern world it is not a popular thing to do, but as a Muslim I can attest to it that they are right in their own rules.On the other hand the US government actively tries to cripple the internet or help do it in favor of RIAA, MPAA and the so called 1%. And in the process of doing so constantly violates people's rights that they claim to and are tasked to uphold.